The Crisis Happens: Now
What?
Q: How do I get information after a disaster? A: Cal State Fullerton has a number of ways to provide information to faculty, staff, students, parents and community members. If telephones are in operation, members of the campus community and others may call the 278-4444 line (278-8676 for the Irvine Campus). This telephone line carries messages about the daily status of the campus and can be changed as often as necessary to update callers about any situations that may occur, such as entrances closed due to flooding, classes cancelled or if the campus has been closed.
The university also has systems of global voice mail and e-mail that can be used during normal working hours. Some offices have established phone trees to update their staff members to what may be happening on campus that could affect whether they return to campus. In an emergency, the campus will share information via the Web, such as on the home and news pages, as well as to TV, radio and other news operations. Q: What happens if an emergency occurs over a weekend/evening (presumably when classes aren't in session)? A: University Police, which are on campus 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, will begin contacting key department individuals (police chief, operations lieutenant and emergency manager). These individuals will determine, based on the severity of the incident and the incident's impact on the university, the level of response and call-out of campus personnel that would be needed. Q: Who is expected to report back "to duty" in the event of a disaster? A: The campus has designated a number of personnel in specific areas and/or technical expertise to respond in an emergency. They are tasked with not only responding to immediate needs, such as securing buildings, assessing damage, conducting rescue operations and establishing communications, but to work together to bring the campus back into business operation. All members of the campus community, because they are state employees, are considered emergency response workers and may be asked to serve in a capacity commensurate with their abilities. To find out what your role may be, your best source is your supervisor in consultation with your department heads. (See item on Page 1.) Q: Should there be an emergency on campus and employees are required to work, what do they do if they have no caretakers available for their children and/or elderly parents? A: "You can't come and work and be efficient unless and until your loved ones are properly prepared," said Quentin Frazier, emergency management coordinator. "Are we as an institution going to provide a place? It's an important question that the university is still struggling to address."
Q: What happens to those who are injured during a disaster? A: Individuals injured in a disaster would be transported to area hospitals by emergency medical services. The university would then go through the process of making contact with the injured individual's identified emergency contacts: Student Affairs would handle contacts for students, Academic Affairs for faculty contacts and Human Resources for staff members. Q: Where do students, especially those housed on campus, go should there be a disaster? A: "The answer to that question depends on the nature of the evacuation, the length, the cause and the immediacy of the emergency," said Darlene Stevenson, director of Housing and Residence Life. "Basically, residence hall students would be under the jurisdiction of the campus Emergency Operations Center and the response could be from sending them home or putting them in temporary quarters in other areas of the campus (i.e., gym), to placing them in Red Cross shelters. The response for evacuation would be very incident specific."
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